CALS Blogs

Literary Festival Update, April 25

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Chigozie Obioma will not appear at this year’s Literary Festival Saturday, April 27, at 4:00 p.m. Maurice Carlos Ruffin and Pitchaya Sudbanthad will appear as previously scheduled. We apologize for any inconvenience.


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Arkansas Literary Festival: Pitchaya Sudbanthad

A Globe-traveling Novelist Explores Home in Bangkok Wakes to Rain

 Pitchaya Sudbanthad’s debut novel is a multi-layered meditation on place and the idea of home, based on the shifting faces of the city of Bangkok over many decades. Bangkok Wakes To Rain is peopled with many characters and interweaves plotlines across decades,


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Arkansas Literary Festival: Laurie Friedman

A childhood in Pine Bluff inspires her books for the wonder years

Is there anything worse than having your little sister loudly announce at your 13th birthday party that you have a huge crush on the new boy next door . . . in front of him?

Maybe. What if your parents then cancel your reservations for summer sleep-away camp,


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Arkansas Literary Festival: Mary Laura Philpott

Philpott brings her Emmy Award-winning humor to her debut memoir

Mary Laura Philpott’s I Miss You When I Blink (Simon & Schuster, April 2019) is a memoir-in-essays prompted by her struggle with an identity crisis in the middle of a seemingly ‘perfect’ life. The author’s wry confessions are sure to bring laughs of recognition from readers.


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Arkansas Literary Festival: Ian S. Port

Rock and Roll Electrifies an Instant Classic, The Birth of Loud

 

The Birth of Loud is an unforgettable journey through the golden age of rock and roll, peopled with working class heroes, rebels, and eccentrics. Author Ian S. Port explores the parallel lives of guitarist Les Paul and music engineer Leo Fender to trace the process of the invention of the “loud” electric guitar.


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Arkansas Literary Festival: Elizabeth Eckford

The sixteenth annual Arkansas Literary Festival will take place April 25-28, 2019.

Civil Rights Icon Encourages Young People with Her Story

Elizabeth Eckford is a living icon of civil rights history. As one of the Little Rock Nine, her face became world-famous in disturbing photos of the 1957 desegregation riots in Little Rock,


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Arkansas Literary Festival: Esmé Wang

The sixteenth annual Arkansas Literary Festival will take place April 25-28, 2019.

Esmé Wang: Luminous Writing Through Limitations

Creativity, resilience, and legacy. These are three words at the forefront of Esmé Wang’s mind. Her life story certainly testifies to all three: creativity as a critically-acclaimed author,


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